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Wednesday, 11 December 2013

A Special Number Day

Look at the date of today's blog post. It is:

11.12.13

How amazing is that and it's the last time this will ever happen during this Century. I feel inexplicably excited about it... sort of bubbly inside. Why am I so influenced by numbers? Goodness knows! There's no logical explanation but I know that I'm not the only one and so I'm offering 3 thoughts on the matter.

Secondly I added them up a different way. 11 + 12 +13. That comes to 36. Add those two numbers and you still get 9.

Thirdly the square root of 9 is 3. So here are my 3 thoughts on my fascination for numbers:

Number 1. I love numbers that are consecutive, palindromic or, even better, all the same. If I park the car and the milometer is showing 8888 then I get excited. It's not that I expect anything special to happen. It's just... well, it's just pleasing.

Number 2. I try not to be influenced by lucky and unlucky numbers but it's not easy. There's something special about the date I was born. 25. It's got to be lucky... hasn't it? My friend lives in a flat that is number 12A and it sits between 12 and 14. A lot of people don't want to live in a number 13 property, it would seem.

Number 3. I feel uneasy about the mystical aspect of Hebrew letters. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet also has a numerical value. This gives words different layers of meaning and some people believe that the deeper meanings can be interpreted in a mystical way. I understand very little about it. Maybe that's why it makes me feel uneasy.

What are your thoughts about numbers? Do you have a lucky number, an unlucky number? Do number patterns excite you... inexplicably?

25 comments:

Hi. Totally missed the number lineup. Good observation. I don't really think much about lucky or unlucky numbers. My house number is 1325, and 13 doesn't bother me. But three sixes in a row? That would bother me---a lot. Too much biblical drama there.

Hi Ros .. I heard about the number line up - but it was v early and cannot for the life of me remember what it was .. except 11, 12 and 13 were a once in a life time set ... 13 is my lucky number, and I've been happy to live at number 13 more than once in my life .. and be 13 on Friday 13th - many moons ago!

As for counting each letter of each word/sentence I write to see if it has hidden meaning .. is a step too far!

I think what I love about this is its very arbitrariness - the fact that we count to a root of 10 and not, say 20. The fact that years are counted backwards and forwards from a 0 year that might or might not have religious significance (in the west - some Asian countries have different calendars). The division of the year into 12 months - all of which leads to this coincidental patterning of numbers.

These things are seen as auspicious in some cultures. Maybe they are - let's hope so, and something magical and wonderful happens today (like the fog lifting so my bus is on time, maybe?)

Base ten is easy, not like base 12 from when we were at school! And then there's that tribe, I think they're Indian, who have no word for numbers other than 'one' and 'more than one'. The Jewish Year is 5774. Not sure I could find many patterns there!

see, you are talking to the person who failed O level maths. Twice. Who was told by their teacher that they were a waste of space. Hate numbers. Hate maths. Can see the pattern and glad you are excited. *hides*

I've not really given numbers much thought but you make them sound very interesting.I live in house 101 and always feel a bit put out when that TV programme comes on that puts all the useless things in room 101.

I wonder if there were a lot of weddings today, or if more people thought of November 12 as being lucky. I've never been very good with numbers, though I'm better at memorizing phone numbers than many teenagers who depend on their cell phones. Just another skill that will get me nowhere!

I am commenting on Friday the 13th - and I think that's lucky. I'm not afraid of 13. I love when the car odometer hits a row - it's like a slot machine - ding, ding, ding. My personal number is 8. Numbers are fun and you can take them where you want to go. Hope all is well in your world - enjoy the weekend

We used to live at number 13 and it didn't bring us bad luck. But this Friday 13th our electricity went off for 40.5 hours, which wasn't pleasant. I find numbers interesting, but I think Hebrew gematria is taken much too seriously. ~Miriam

I've never been much good at numbers, having a tendency to read them the wrong way round. I struggled with them at school and even my parents were amazed I passed maths O level. But yes, I can see the appeal of this type of thing, the way the numbers always come down to the same combinations. I also like to watch the meter on the car and get excited when I see a special number come up. No special numbers for me, but I enjoy these patterns. A great post, Ros!

Rosalind Adam

I am a writer, committed worrier and nostalgia obsessive with a fascination for all things historical. I have just completed an MA in Creative Writing at Leicester University and I loved every minute of it. Please scroll down to see my books...

The Children's Book of Richard III

This is my latest book, illustrated by Alice Povey. Click on the picture to buy a copy or go to Amazon.

Children's History of Leicester

A Children's History of Leicester published by Hometown World Publishers, 2011

Bathtime Rap

Bathtime Rap is a fun children's picture book published by Franklin Watts, 2008.

Building a Community

A history of the Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation

Heritage Funded Projects

I was lead facilitator on the following two Heritage Lottery funded projects:

Leicester Jewish Voices

In 2009 I coordinated a memories project looking at the Leicester Jewish Community during the 1950s and 60s. You can see the website by clicking on the picture.

Local Cemetery Project

I coordinated the cataloguing of the Jewish section of Leicester Gilroes to provide a genealogical search facility. Subsequent research of a number of the headstones enabled us to record 'The Lives Behind the Stones'. 2014/15